Informed and Involved?

May 3rd, 2006 | Posted in » Baptist Issues, My Life / Family

I work for an electric cooperative. In essence, my job boils down to one thing… whatever I do, I must ensure that the actions I take are in the best interest of our members. Why? The same people to whom we provide electricity are the same people who own us. It’s what makes electric cooperatives unique… the customers (members) are owners of the company, and the company exists solely for their benefit. As such, our members are intensely interested in how we do our job to ensure their needs are met in the most cost-effective manner possible.

Why do I bring this up? One of the driving principles that makes cooperatives great is a focus on ensuring that our membership is both informed and involved. When we have rate increases, our members are kept informed… they know they’re coming ahead of time and they know why. When we face difficult choices about power supply options, our members are kept in the loop. There is strength in unity, and unity cannot exist without understanding.

We, as Southern Baptists, can learn a lot from this driving principle, and I believe that both our strength of purpose and our unity would grow should we focus on creating a more well-informed and involved membership. As such, we should be asking ourselves some tough questions, especially if we are leaders in our churches or if we serve with the convention or any of its agencies:

Are our members well-informed about our convention’s activities?
Are our members aware of the cooperative program and the ministries it funds?
Are our members up to speed on what those ministries are doing?
Does our membership really care?

If we have to answer no to any of those questions, we have a problem that we cannot ignore.